Two of the game's finest number eights - Vermeulen with his brute strength versus Parisse and his silky skills – will be on show at Shizuoka Stadium in a Pool B encounter that is shaping up as a battle for a quarter-final berth.

"You want to beat your opposition as a player, but also as a team," said Springbok Vermeulen, 33. "So I want to do the individual work that is set out for me, but I would also like to contribute to the team in the way we want to play and execute our plan.

"He is a stalwart for their team and a fantastic player. Playing in his fifth World Cup is a massive achievement for a man that I kind of look up to and played against a couple of times."

While Vermeulen, pictured, earned his 50th test cap in the opening 23-13 defeat against New Zealand, Italy's Parisse has 141 caps, making him the joint second most-capped player in world rugby alongside Ireland's Brian O'Driscoll, with only New Zealand's Richie McCaw (148) above him.

Vermeulen, "mentally fresh" after being rested from the 57-3 victory against Namibia, said the Springboks did extra work on breakdowns during training with the goal of providing quicker ball to the backs.

With heavy rain forecast for Shizuoka, scrums and lineouts will become crucial.

The selection of lineout specialist Lood de Jager, who was player of the match against Namibia, will make a real difference, according to his former Bulls team-mate.

"He is a really good leader when it comes to lineouts. He is put there for a reason – he is a tall guy, and also gives you a lot of extra weight at scrum time, as well as the mauls," said Vermeulen.

"He really impressed in the last game and hopefully he can do that again. Everyone is expecting that from him."

Coach Rassie Erasmus is taking nothing for granted against the Italians, and rates this encounter more important than their opening game against the All Blacks.

“I thought about this test match last November, because we’ve lost to Italy (in 2016)," he said. "I think people shouldn’t look past that. Just like the Japanese game was a little bit of a monkey off our back, we have to beat Italy.

“The most important game was always going to be Italy in the pool stages. Now it’s the real deal.

"We’ve been building for 20 test matches and it’s do-or-die this weekend. The players feel it, and I’m sitting here and have a little bit of butterflies. They (Italy) will be really up for this game because they won’t believe they could beat the All Blacks, but they will believe they could beat the Springboks.”

- Rugby World Cup